Like many of us I've spent quite a lot of time in prison over the last forty years. Dublin's Mountjoy prison with Brendan Behan, Buenos Aires with Luis and Valentin, HMP Slade with Fletcher, Godber and Mackay, Shawshank with Andy Dufresne - even women's prisons at Stone Park and Wentworth. In Coyote (as with Behan) we are on death row (although it was never called that on this side of the pond) and I was expecting it to be a depressing, edgy place - but this wasn't quite how things turned out.

John Brennan is the centre of things. An educated, articulate man he has turned his time in prison to publishing a newspaper "The Death Row Advocate" (a slightly double edged name if you think about it) notable for its obituaries which give the latest executed prisoner a shine to their reputation that the general public probably don't think they deserve. Brennan counsels the other occupants of Death Row and tries to make as much publicity as he can to turn public opinion against the death penalty. But two people come along to deflect him from his path of righteousness - a new inmate and a New York journalist.

Dan Usztan's Bobby Rayburn is everything that Brennan isn't - uneducated, goofy and unapologetically racist. What's more he admits his guilt and expects - even welcomes - his upcoming demise. When Brennan and Rayburn first come together it doesn't seem likely that there is going be any rapprochement between them or shift of power in the relationship. "I violated my own rule Angela - I got close to someone and allowed them to get close to me" writes John to a supporter, about the most recently executed prisoner, seemingly vowing not to do it again. And then he does it again. Since John wants to save Bobby and a saviour has to know his disciple things change; the saviour is not entirely in control. John gives Bobby his towel, helps him re-write his letter to the Death Row Advocate and tolerates his questions about soap operas : "John why's this here called All My Children? I been watching for a fortnight and I ain't seen no kids". Graham is toying with his liberal audience of course (a review of a previous production doubted it had been produced much south of the Mason-Dixon line) as we should hate Bobby, but he comes across as kind of lovable. When his eyes light up at the memory of his being welcomed into a community, you have to remind yourself that he was feeling the love from the Aryan nation. Brennan is caught out when he calls Bobby "an uneducated,ignorant, backwoods, racist hick" - hardly supportive behaviour, perhaps showing that the men on death row are just pawns in his game. Dan Usztan's performance was spot on and did have you believing that maybe he was the more honest man of the two, someone not pretending to be something he wasn't. Hell, we even laughed at his animal impressions, even though they were, as he said a bit too "visual" for the man on the other side of a brick wall.

The New York Times journo is called Samuel Fried - an interesting name, even if (as we are told) the electric company was no longer involved in executions any more due to the bad publicity. The true story behind the play lead me to believe that Fried would play much more of a part in the drama than he did - helping Brennan to publicise his cause or leading a campaign to end the death penalty in the United States. Instead he seemed to be mainly interested in Brennan's past and poking holes in his arguments, arguing (not unreasonably) for the rights of victims. Paul Rutledge gave Fried a perplexed look and troubled conscience only really warming to Brennan when reading Bobby's obituary in the "Death Row Advocate" and recognising that he had been outflanked. He had been expecting an easy "win" journalistically speaking , but the story had lost its appeal, so to speak, when Brennan's non negiotable stance tested him too much.

Matthew Vickers as John Brennan gave a bravura performance full of sound and barely supressed fury signifying rather a lot of things. He is a man of contradictions, a truthseeker who can't face up to his own misdeeds, a humanitarian who glosses over heinous crimes against humanity, a friend to those in dire need who has ruined his relationship with his daughter and his parents. A man who was refusing to go gentle into that goodnight and would rage against anyone who wasn't of the same mind. He was in some sort of denial to be sure and ultimately failed to get what he wanted or avoid his own meeting with the chaplain - another man who he had misjudged in his thirst for one hundred per cent agreement. As Bobby would have said if he had carried on singing "May the circle be unbroken" : "One by one their seats were emptied. One by one they went away. Now the family is parted, Will it be complete one day?"

Prison guard Shawna spent most of her significant moments in the local bar, cadging drinks off journalist for quotes and defending her integrity: "I'm just doin' my job. I'm not a bad person - write that down!". I felt that it didn't quite work that she was perched up above the main action to indicate her bar based separation from the prison. This device worked for the interviews between Fried and Brennan (Fried leaving by walking downstairs seemed the right thing to do) but I thought that it made a lot of Sacha Walker's best work seem a bit lost. This was a shame as Michael Bettell's seemingly Escher influenced set was a masterpiece of economy and design. Lynda Twidale's prison officer uniforms were worthy of commendation and there was excellent offstage screaming by Richard Davies.

In his author's note Bruce Graham advises : "Find the comedy. Play against the text" and director Dom Ward followed this advice closely for a very polished finished product. We didn't feel sorry for anyone really (Graham also commands "for God's sake...no crying!") and we were constantly being made to consider and re-consider our thoughts about the characters - a lot of fine acting was packed into an hour and thirty five minutes. Bruce Graham's work as a playwright isn't particularly well known in this country and the 2004 Manchester Exchange production (which transferred to the West End) was this play's European premiere. Coyote on a Fence suggests some of his other work would be worth investigation.

Photography by David Sprecher